One lesson from Jor
Action cures fear
Action cures fear.
That’s the message hanging on a small, handwritten sign just in frame over Jor’s shoulder as we hit record. The proverb is a good lesson for life. It also encapsulates him entirely.
Jor left a career in accountancy to do this. He began a daily livestream, showing up for the first 100 episodes with just three people in the chat. He’s now 579 shows in, with no sponsors - a tight-knit community funds it - and enough separate income streams that no single one can sink him.
Jor’s 88 SATS show has played a vital role in my education around the case for sound money. More than that, though, he taught me that we can choose how to live: we don’t just have to accept the version of life we’re currently living, but instead have the agency to change it.
The pursuit of a more sovereign life - one that feels more aligned with your values and what you actually want - is messy.
As Jor says during our conversation, you don’t just wake up one day and become as disciplined as Marcus Aurelius. It requires consistency. Forward motion that has setbacks and successes, and treats both as the same thing - an opportunity to learn.
There’s a lot of practical guidance in our discussion. It’s framed as a roadmap to becoming more of a sovereign individual. We cover relocation and physical sovereignty, digital privacy and security in the AI era, cultivating income streams as a solo operator, and navigating the tension of creating content and building a community versus relying on centralised platforms like X or YouTube.
It’s educational viewing, especially for anyone considering moving out of traditional employment and starting to work for themselves. For me, it gets deeper from 45 minutes onwards.
Jor is a raw nerve, fiercely independent and unfiltered. What I admire most is that none of it comes at the expense of his belief in people.
There’s a danger that, in the process of wanting to become less reliant on others and more sovereign, you wall yourself off and adopt a bunker mentality. Jor is the opposite of that. His independence and success are founded on community - in person and in cyberspace - and the understanding that the only person you’re competing with is yourself. There’s enough to go round.
At a time when many people are anxious about advances in AI and what they mean for jobs, Jor’s story is one of optimism. He may be at the frontier of earning a living in the digital world, but the bargain is an old one: put in the work, stay true to yourself - and know that action cures fear.
The line I keep coming back to:
“It’s all proof of work. There’s no shortcuts. Everything has to be earned. And the only way that you can earn that is through time and effort and energy.”
— Jor, Orientation, Episode 2